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CANNES, FRANCE—There were tears and laughter in the Palais early Tuesday as Steven Soderbergh unveiled his avowed final film, the Liberace drama Behind the Candelabra.

The tears came from actor Michael Douglas, 68, who came back from a near-fatal bout of throat cancer to take on the demanding role of playing Liberace, the flamboyant yet closeted entertainer whose five-year love affair with his aide Scott Thorson drives the story.

The film, which co-stars Matt Damon as Thorson, also shows Liberace’s decline and death from HIV.

“For me this has an echo,” Douglas said, pausing to hold back tears at a Cannes Film Festival press conference.

“Because it was right after my cancer. And this beautiful gift that was handed to me, I’m eternally grateful . . . this is as good as it gets.”

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He was greeted with applause by the assembled journalists, who minutes before had attended a screening of Behind the Candelabra in advance of Tuesday night’s world premiere. Douglas actually looks healthier in person that he does on screen, since the film holds little back in depicting Liberace’s vain attempts to stop the aging process through wigs, makeup and cosmetic surgery.

Michael Douglas and Matt Damon at the Behind The Candelabra premiere at the 66th annual Cannes Film Festival at the Palais des Festivals on May 21, 2013 in Cannes, France. (Andreas Rentz / GETTY IMAGES)

Michael Douglas, left, as Liberace with Matt Damon as his lover Scott Thorson in Behind the Candelabra. It screens May 26 on HBO and at Toronto's Inside Out festival. (HBO)

Candelabra is a made-for-TV movie that premieres May 26 on HBO, with a simultaneous free theatrical screening at Toronto’s Inside Out LGBT Film Festival. It’s also amongst the 20 competing for the Palme d’Or, which will be handed out Sunday.

Director Soderbergh seemed to have trouble maintaining his composure, too, when he was asked if will in fact be his final film. Soderbergh, 50, said it’s his last film at least for the moment as he pursues other interests (“I’ve had a good run”).

But he started to get emotional when he recalled that he’d first appeared on the Cannes press podium 23 years ago for his first feature sex, lies, and videotape, which won the 1989 Palme d’Or.

He’d first approached Douglas with the idea of playing Liberace when the two were making the drug wars film Traffic 13 years ago. Douglas said his initial response was shock: “I thought he was messing with me.”

But mostly Tuesday’s press event was punctuated with laughter, especially when Matt Damon started getting into the specifics of the simulated gay sex that he and Douglas engaged in on camera, revealing enough skin (especially bare asses) that a parental advisory warning is probably warranted.

“In terms of being in bed with Michael Douglas, I now have things in common with Sharon Stone, Glenn Close . . . and Demi Moore,” Damon said, referring to several of Douglas’s on-screen sex partners.

“We can all go out and trade stories.”

He said he felt he had to warn the crew on the set of Candelabra that he has a “very large” behind.

“This is something you can’t unsee,” he told them. “You’re all welcome to look, but you can’t unring that bell!”

Damon added that he had worried discussions with Soderbergh about how best to shoot the scene where Thorson and Liberace first have sex, since he’d had a “Brazilian tan line” done to assist him in fitting into his tight costumes. Wouldn’t that show in the shot when he disrobed?

“Stephen just looked at me for a long time and said, ‘Oh, I know where to put the camera!’

“So I’m really proud of that scene . . . we’ll see it on the biggest screen ever tonight, which will be jarring.”

Douglas got some laughs of his own, especially when he told of how he just dived right into the kissing scenes with Damon.

“I just said, ‘Let’s get it on! What flavour lip balm would you like me to use?”

As for the film itself, it’s not the exposé it would have been if it had been released in 1977, the year the Liberace/Thorson romance began. It plays more as a drama of a tempestuous and ultimately doomed relationship, but it’s hardly shocking and not the least bit tragic — nor is it meant to be.

Back then, Liberace was denying being gay, and successfully sued a British newspaper for insinuating that he was. Yet the film, based on Thorson’s memoirs, shows how Liberace wasn’t at all shy about his raging libido and his narcissistic ways. He loved Thorson so much, and vice-versa, he paid to have his protégé get plastic surgery (Rob Lowe is great as the oily surgeon) so he’d look more like Liberace.

Douglas successfully conjures Liberace, sequins and all, avoiding the campiness that would have sunk the movie. He also does a solid approximation of Liberace’s crowd-working skills as a top-billed Las Vegas entertainer.

He’s a pro in the role, and so is Damon as Thorson. It’s neither of their faults that the story and film only go skin-deep, although the graphic plastic surgery scenes that Soderbergh includes could make you wince. TV is the right venue for this picture.

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